Michigan All-Access: Destiny awaits for Wolverines, Cardinals in NCAA final

Michigan celebrates its semfinal victory over Syracuse in the Final Four.

It's been a long road for Michigan to get back to the national title game.

The Wolverines hadn't even sniffed so much as a Sweet 16 since making it to the Elite 8 in 1994. One of the more famous Michigan alums, Jalen Rose, never won a national championship, but he'll have a chance to be at this game thanks to a big assist — from a Michigan State alum, no less. Kyle Meinke has the story:

Jalen Rose will be on hand for the Michigan basketball team's first championship game appearance since 1993, thanks to an assist from former Michigan State great Magic Johnson.

Rose, a member of the Fab Five who played against North Carolina in that title game, told Grantland's Bill Simmons that he's catching a lift from Los Angeles to Atlanta on Johnson's private jet.

"Who would have thought 20 years ago that I would be going to the game to watch my Wolverines cut down the nets — and riding on the plane with Earvin 'Magic' Johnson?" Rose told Simmons. "This is unbelievable."

» And by the way, will Chris Webber be at the game tonight? As of late this morning, he looks like the only no-show of the Fab 5. "As far as I know, four out of the five are going to be here," said Jimmy King. "I have not talked to Chris, none of the other guys have talked to Chris, we have all left messages, texted him, relayed, everything."

» A Michigan national championship would mean more than the group of young 20-somethings wearing the maize and blue would even realize. None of the Michigan's starters were alive back in 1989, for the school's last national championship. MLive.com's Nick Baumgardner breaks down just how long those 24 years have been for Michigan fans:

Brian Ellerbe was hired after Fisher was forced out in the wake of the Ed Martin scandal, and the program completely collapsed. Tommy Amaker was then brought in under impossible circumstances, and though he came close more times than anyone may ever care to count, he never pushed Michigan over the hump. He, too, was gone and Michigan continued to sit in purgatory.

It had been 18 years since Michigan won a national title when John Beilein took the job — basically sight unseen — in 2007.

It may as well have been 180 years.

» When Louisville coach Rick Pitino looks across the court at some point on Monday night, he might be wondering what could have been if he had made a different decision 12 years ago. As MLive.com's Kyle Meinke writes, Pitino would have taken the Michigan job in 2001— if his wife hadn't talked him out of it:

Pitino's disastrous run as the Boston Celtics' coach was ending in 2001, and his wife urged him to take a job east of the Mississippi. That ruled out UNLV, which had been on the table.

"So, I took the Michigan job," Pitino said.

Joanne Pitino had second thoughts, preferring to return to Kentucky, where they spent eight years and Rick Pitino won a national title with the Wildcats in 1996.

» So instead of Pitino trying to bring players up to Ann Arbor, it was first Tommy Amaker and then John Beilein trusted with the task of bringing the Wolverines back to the promised land. It took Amaker until he got fired at UM and hired at Harvard to have a measure of postseason success, but Beilein has finally broken through in his sixth season at the school.

A big part of Beilein's success has been the players he's brought to the school. Beilein has never been known as a big-time recruiter like Indiana's Tom Crean, Kentucky's John Calipari or even Pitino. He's never been one to bring in the one-and-done NBA players. But there's a reason that this is the team that broke through, Kyle Meinke notes:

Seated next to Beilein was Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr., Mitch McGary, Glenn Robinson III and Nik Stauskas. Stop and think about that collection of talent for a moment.

Burke is the unanimous national player of the year, and a projected lottery pick. Hardaway, McGary and Robinson will be pros whenever they choose to be, and Stauskas could join them with some development.

Four NBA players in the same lineup? It's a small club of schools that can stockpile that kind of elite talent — and Michigan hasn't been among them in decades.

» Burke has been getting the most attention of any player on Michigan's roster, and rightly so. The consensus National Player of the Year after winning every major award there is to win, though the 6-foot point guard has had a bit of a rough NCAA Tournament (13.8 ppg, 32.4 FG%). Either way, he's considered a high first-round draft pick in this year's NBA Draft — so no matter how this game goes, as MLive.com's Nick Baumgardner writes, this could be Trey Burke's swan song:

Michigan will battle Louisville for the national championship Monday in Atlanta. It'll be the final time the 2012-13 team plays a game together, and for Burke, it may be the final time he plays a game without collecting a paycheck.

Unless you've been spending your time burying your head in the sand, and hiding it under a rock, you're aware that Burke is viewed as a sure-fire early first-round NBA draft pick this season.

He nearly left last year. And while he says he hasn't made up his mind this time around, the possibility of Monday being the final time he wears a Michigan uniform has, in fact, crossed his mind.

» Though Burke might be headed for the Association in a few months, he doesn't think he's the most important player on his team. Freshman forward Mitch McGary — who Kyle Meinke notes could have gone to nearly any school of his choosing — might be the most important cog in this championship run:

McGary has exploded onto the national scene since entering the starting lineup for the tournament. He's averaging 16.0 points and 11.6 boards, and has three double-doubles — the first Michigan player to do that in the Big Dance since Juwan Howard in 1994.

Even point guard Trey Burke, the unanimous national player of the year, agrees that McGary's emergence has been the catalyst for the Wolverines' remarkable run.

"That’s been the key to our team," Burke said. "Mitch McGary has definitely been our best player over the past few weeks. He’s been our most critical player."